India beat Australia, finish 3rd in women's World Cup

March 21, 2009 14:02 IST

India finished third in the ICC Women's World Cup after Jhulan Goswami and her teammates edged past defending champions Australia by three wickets in a play-off match at the Bankstown Oval in Sydney on Saturday.

The Indian bowlers ran through Australia's batting, bundling them out for 142 in 44.4 overs.

India's chase was not smooth sailing either. They faltered before eventually reaching 145 for seven wickets in 43.5 overs in the match, which was reduced to 46-overs-a-side following rain.

Sulakshana Naik top-scored for India with 28 while Rumeli Dhar (24) and Jhulan (18) steered the team victory with an unbeaten 41-run stand.

This was India's second victory over the defending champions, having earlier beaten them by 16 runs in the Super Six stage.

Rolton's decision to bat first today clearly backfired as Jhulan castled Leah Poulton with the fourth delivery of the day.

Shelley Nitschke (6), the other opener, too did not last long as Rumeli dismissed her in the sixth over, reducing the hosts to eight for two.

Rolton and Blackwell had just steadied the ship when India's left-arm spinner Gouher Sultana dismissed the latter and Australia soon lost the top half of their batting order with the score reading a mere 63.

Rolton found an able ally in the Pune-born Sthalekar and they put on 60 runs before Priyanka Roy ejected the Australian captain to trigger a batting collapse and the hosts eventually folded for 142 runs inside 45 overs.

India's pursuit for a modest chase got off to a decent start with opener Anjum Chopra (18) and Anagha Deshpande (15) adding 33 runs before Erin Osborne removed both in successive overs.